At its October meeting, the Fort Thomas Planning Commission appointed four people to fill vacant positions on three boards – one for the planning and zoning, two for the board of adjustment and one for the design review board. The four were recommended by the city staff and approved by the commission.
According to state law, the mayor is required to appoint members to fill vacant positions on the city’s planning and zoning commission and board of adjustment within 60 days of an opening. If the mayor does not appoint anyone within that time period, the city’s planning and zoning commission is authorized to appoint members to fill the vacancies.
Since the state does not regulate the design review board, handling of vacancies is dictated by city ordinance. Starting last spring, the city conducted a review and update of city ordinances, including the design review board. At its October meeting, city council approved updates for the board’s ordinance, including requiring all members to be city residents.
How the process worked
Because the city did not fill the vacancies within the 60 days required, officials brought recommendations to the planning commission for approval. City staff did advertise, receive and review applications for the position.
The planning commission received application materials for the four people recommended by city staff but did not receive materials from other applicants.
General services manager Kevin Barbian said the city carefully reviewed all applications but chose the applications to bring forward based on both qualifications and how their experience fit into the current makeup of the boards.
“The mayor, myself and Matt [Kremer] have looked through these applications, and talked about them significantly,” Barbian said. “We had some great applications…The reason we selected the folks that are here, that we are proposing is to fit in with the qualifications that we already have on the boards. So, despite the fact that many of the folks were certainly qualified to serve on these boards, we tried to diversify each of the boards in the way that we picked qualifications that some of the others might not have.”
Why the delay
Some community members questioned why the delay and why the commission did not receive all the applications.
Barbian said the ordinance review and ongoing discussions about board qualifications, residency requirements and other issues and updates impacted the timing.
When a longtime member and business owner on the board moved her home out of the city, a question arose about a residency requirement. This sparked extensive discussions throughout the spring and summer, resulting in the requirement added to the ordinance that had only been approved at the most recent council meeting.
On the planning commission, the review and update brought into question a reappointment of longtime member Dan Gorman because it had not been approved officially by council. He was asked step back from the board while the review of ordinances was ongoing.
Also, at the time, Gorman, who has businesses in the city, asked the ethics board for an advisory opinion on potential conflicts of interest. He had recused himself from board vote whenever there might be a conflict. The board issued its opinion in September that it found no ethical conflicts.
“We had to go through the process of getting an advisory opinion as requested,” said city attorney Tim Schneider. “We did so. That advisory opinion has been made public. That took quite some time.”
The two vacancies on the board of adjustment were due to common circumstances – a retirement and a decision by a board member to step down for personal reasons.
Who are the applicants
The commission heard from some of the applicants for the positions.
David Gwisdalla applied for a position on the planning and zoning commission. Although he is from Colorado, he has lived in Fort Thomas for five years through his federal employment.
“I was very impressed when I moved here from Colorado, where I was a planning commissioner for about 11 years in the town of Monument,” he said. “It was another city that was growing very rapidly at the time, doing a lot of development.”
He noted he would have applied to join the board earlier but was unclear about the definition of residency. The new clarified language in the city’s ordinance states a resident is someone who maintains a home and sleeps within the city limits. Although he is technically from Colorado, he fits the residency definition.
“I happen to be a uniform service member, so I’m not actually a resident technically of Kentucky, but I live in Fort Thomas by your ordinances and your rules,” Gwisdalla said. “I would love the opportunity to serve on this board and provide some of my expertise. I’m an environmental engineer and civil engineer.”
Gwisdalla said he has worked in the industry for 26 years and is an employee of the U.S. Public Health Service. In his position, he helps people in public health disasters and is involved in remediation of contaminated sites.
Ben Novosel is an architect and applied for the design review board.
“I came here to attend the University of Cincinnati architecture school and so I’ve been here around Greater Cincinnati for almost 25 years now,” Novosel said. “I moved to Fort Thomas about five years ago, and I’ve been just loving it. I think it’s of interest to me to be on the board to continue the things that brought my interest and desire to be here, along with a lot of people in terms of aesthetics and strategy for development.”
Chris Buchert has lived in Fort Thomas for 18 years and applied for a position on the board of adjustment.
“I just recently bought some property in the center of town and took an interest in the operations of the various things going on with planning and zoning, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get involved with the city and to give back a little, bring some of my knowledge to the table,” Buchert said. “I have built houses for the last 30 years. I’m a residential home builder/developer. I’ve been involved with planning commissions and have brought a lot of things to planning commissions around Greater Cincinnati, so have had experience from this side of the podium but I want to see it from the other side.”
Randy Voet also applied to fill a second vacancy on the board of adjustment.
The commissioners voted to approve all the applicants for the open positions.